Roblox misses on Q4 earnings despite revenue jumping 83%

Daniel Howley
·Technology Editor
·2 min read
29

Roblox (RBLX) reported its Q4 earnings on Tuesday, missing on the top and bottom line, despite revenue jumping 83% year-over-year.

Here are the most important numbers from the report compared to what Wall Street was expecting, as compiled by Bloomberg.

  • Revenue: $568 million versus $604 million expected

  • Bookings: $770 million versus $786 million expected

  • Losses per share: $0.25 versus $0.11 expected

Roblox shares fell by as much as 14% following the report.

User growth in Q4 also barely missed expectations, with Roblox announcing 49.5 million daily active users, versus the 50.1 million Wall Street was looking for. Still, that accounts for a 33% year-over-year increase from Q4 2020. What’s more, the company said there were 54.7 million daily active users as of January, though those are counted toward Roblox Q1.

“With nearly 55 million daily active users, Roblox is increasingly an integral part of people’s lives,” Roblox CEO David Baszucki said in a statement.

“As we look ahead to 2022, we will continue to develop our technology to enable deeper forms of communication, immersion and expression on our platform.”

For its entire fiscal year, Roblox reported $1.9 billion in revenue, a 108% year-over-year increase from 2020.

BURLINGAME, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 10: David Baszucki, founder and CEO of Roblox, presents at the Roblox Developer Conference on August 10, 2019 in Burlingame, California. (Photo by Ian Tuttle/Getty Images for Roblox)
David Baszucki, founder and CEO of Roblox, presents at the Roblox Developer Conference on August 10, 2019. (Photo by Ian Tuttle/Getty Images for Roblox)

Roblox, which went public in March 2021, is considered a proxy for investors hoping to take an early stake in the metaverse, the 3-D version of the internet that prompted Facebook to change its name to Meta. The gaming platform allows users to create their own content, and make money off of it, and gives players the ability to travel between

During Q4, Roblox announced a new deal with the NFL that allows users to build and manage their own NFL stadiums and manage their teams. The feature, called NFL Tycoon, joins a growing list of brand partnerships for Roblox — and more will likely come in 2022.

Roblox is one of a handful of examples of metaverse apps that are already up and running. Other contemporaries include Epic Games’ “Fortnite” and “Decentraland,” and, of course, Facebook (FB) parent Meta’s Horizon Worlds.

Still, Roblox's success may not be tied to the metaverse in the long run, and could simply be based on the fact that it’s a compelling game. We’ll just have to wait and see if it grows beyond that.

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Got a tip? Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.